SJ Capital group

[Raskol]

Come off it. My guess is that this is how it may work. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

(1) A front company with limited liability makes an offer to a farmer or farmers to buy their land (with an appropriate suspensive clause in case not enough money is raised to pay the offered price). If all goes wrong, the front company goes bankrupt and investors (as well as the farmers) get screwed -- the money they paid, allocated by creative accountants to plausible accounts, actually sits safely in the Cayman Islands or some such place. Limited liability is a wonderful thing -- somebody should compose a song for it.

(2) If enough money is received to conclude the deal, the property is sold to another front company (cut-out number 2) that undertakes the development, perhaps doing various things that slip past those entrusted with regulating new developments. As soon as the development is completed, this company ceases to exist. Cayman islands etc. Cut-out number 2.

(3) When the owners of the properties start complaining to the local authorities about things going wrong, they are adviused that they were party to all sorts of things and had best keep quiet.

(4) Eventually SJ Group goes gently into that good night of limited liability and in due course a new company is born.

Just a guess, no harm intended.

@ pboyles, anley & others

It seems that in your noble pursuit to expose rogue organisations your subjectivity has over-ridden the obligation you have to your post-readers. Surely you agree with the requirement to do proper research on the companies you hastily tar with the same brush, wilfully quoting inaccuracies and insulting any individual who dares question your basis, which is a travesty no different to the scams you try to expose. One specific example is that of SJ Capital, which you have accused of being a “land-banking” scam. I am the MD of SJ Capital (SA) and wish to repudiate several of the points you have made about our organisation. Our detailed response can be found at SJ Capital Group - Strategic Land Investment

 

[anley]

All looks very quiet on the SJ Capital front. I wonder if any of the investors have been able to sell their plot at a 'great' profit yet?

How about the Greehithe site in Kent?

According to the site planning permission is supposed to be granted within the next month leading to the sale of the land within 3 months.

Keep a close eye on the website especially the timelines they give. Then, unless you're an investor, sit back and watch the timelines stretch longer and longer into the future...............

If you are an investor and call them for an update be aware that as you're already a 'valued client' it's odds on the company will have a 'special deal' for you in the form of another plot of land. But don't dilly-dally because that deal won't be offered to just anyone and it's selling out fast

 

[anley]

Some links for people not familiar with land banking -

Warning to investors as land-banking scams top £200m - Telegraph

PropertySCAM - Fighting the blight of UK land scams since 2004

BBC One - You've Been Scammed, Land Banking Scam

Warning over 'landbanking' scams in which investors are sold worthless plots as number of cases double in two years | Mail Online

FSA warns investors over landbanking and boiler room scams | Money | guardian.co.uk

Field-day for courts as landbanking scams shut down - Investigations

What landbanking scam mastermind Bally Chohan did next - Investigations

BBC News - Paul Lewis on land banking schemes

BBC News - 'I lost £100K on land investments'

Brits Losing Millions To Land-Bank Fraud

 

[anley]

This one mentions Brian Smith who works for Sj Capital and used to work for UKLI.

Paul Charney Brian Smith Bally Chohan UKLI

A little bit about Bally Chohan who according to the article above OWNS SJ Capital. Anyone reckon he's gone legit

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/dubai-property-watchdog-launches-chohan-probe-45529.html

http://ukcapitalinvestmentsfraud.com/

 

[anley]

More on this thread -

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/first-steps/138960-sj-capital-group.html

 

[anley]

Some excellent advice below from this article Paul Charney Brian Smith Bally Chohan UKLI on how to deal with any company selling plots of land that you're told by the salesman will 'soon' shoot up in value.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final advice to anyone thinking of buying a land plot from any company

Some people have denounced the sale of agricultural land plots as a scam. But can you really say it's a scam when you bought a small plot of land and that's what you received - a small plot of land?

The problem arises if you bought your plot and paid a high price for it because you thought that it had realistic chances of obtaining planning permission in the not-too-distant future, and it turns out too late that it hasn't.

There's a simple way to make sure that this doesn't happen to you. Before you buy, make sure that you engage an independent qualified chartered surveyor to value the plot for you. And make sure that this surveyor is somebody who has never had any contact whatsoever with the company selling the land plots.

If you still decide to go ahead, then you should engage your own independent solictor to handle the transaction for you. Again, this solicitor should be somebody who has not had any prior contact with the company.

-------------------------------------------

Folks, the above is simple business. Yet if you don't understand the importance of paying for professional and INDEPENDENT help then you're way out of your depth and easy meat if somebody wants to take advantage of you......

 

[anley]

To anyone that bought a plot of land in the UK that will 'rocket' in value when the plot gets planning permission, did your sales call go anything like the following?

Land 'scams' techniques revealed | UK Land for Sale

 

[anley]

Who would have thought of it!

I made post a few days back laughing at the claims of SJ Capital re their Greenhithe, Kent site.

According to their website timetable, planning permission should already have been granted and the land sold within the next month.

Now guess what, that timetable has been removed!

Draw your own conclusions.......

 

[wackypete2]

Who would have thought of it!

I made post a few days back laughing at the claims of SJ Capital re their Greenhithe, Kent site.

According to their website timetable, planning permission should already have been granted and the land sold within the next month.

Now guess what, that timetable has been removed!

Draw your own conclusions.......

Unfortunately some people simply will not heed the warnings....then they'll post on here crying about their loss.

Peter

 

[rsh01]

Can you contact them and ask how its going?

 

[anley]

If anyone does call them I'm sure they'll be somewhat pacified with some smoothing talk. The problems of course won't be anything to do with the company, rather they will ALL be to do with the council and bureaucracy. And if you think about it, that means the excuses can go on forever.........

If I was an investor I woulnd't be happy right now because the Kent site would have been sold to me on the basis of that timetable, the one that said that planning permission would have been granted about now and the site sold within the next 2-3 months.

That timetable has now of course been removed, but then the company has everyone's money - can you see the real problem that investors have here?

 

[Propertyfraud]

All looks very quiet on the SJ Capital front. I wonder if any of the investors have been able to sell their plot at a 'great' profit yet?

How about the Greehithe site in Kent?

According to the site planning permission is supposed to be granted within the next month leading to the sale of the land within 3 months.

Keep a close eye on the website especially the timelines they give. Then, unless you're an investor, sit back and watch the timelines stretch longer and longer into the future...............

If you are an investor and call them for an update be aware that as you're already a 'valued client' it's odds on the company will have a 'special deal' for you in the form of another plot of land. But don't dilly-dally because that deal won't be offered to just anyone and it's selling out fast

I wonder whether there have ever been any success stories where an investor ever got his money back from th company? Have you guys heard of any?

 

[anley]

All the planning updates on the SJ Capital site are coming up to being 6 months old.

Surely they must be updated soon as a company has a duty to keep its investors informed of developments especially if the investors have paid lots of money to the firm.

Anyone want to bet on what the update to the Greenhithe, Kent site says?

Do you think investors will be happy about the update or do you think they'll be slightly upset?

Time will no doubt tell.......

 

[anley]

Good move by Sky News here, love the way the conman tries to slip away when they put the camera on him. Looks like the Police have got involved as well, freezing assets and making arrests.

Brits Losing Millions To Land-Bank Fraud

Firms suspected of land banking have assets frozen by FSA

 

[hecatomb]

just received contact from this company, see below their email to me. I am not interested in them, seems and sounds legit, but reality is it aint going to happen. No warm fuzzy feeling from them EVER



Trust that you are well.

As per our conversation regarding our strategic land investment opportunity in the United Kingdom. This email serves as an introduction to SJ Capital and what we offer you as the investor. The attached document is just a broader overview of how the investment is structured please note that the values of sites do vary.

We invest in strategic UK land, alongside major funds and super brand corporations and WE MAKE IT AFFORDABLE.

We sub-divide land earmarked for rezoning and development and on-sell to our clients as short to medium term investment.
Thus the rezoning adds value to the land and we capitalise on the value increase.

When you invest you get an excellent offshore investment vehicle, hedging value and security in a safe asset class the form of a registered title deed.

This is what makes us different:
1. At our cost we drive rezoning applications and admin.
2. At our own cost we market the land and on-sell at the best price to a developer upon rezoning/township planning.
3. SJ Capital retains 25% of the land for self-investment – thus we have a vested interest in the best returns in the shortest time frame.

The returns are attractive over the medium term.
All returns are paid in Pounds Sterling and are represented by current market related value for similar real estate and our activities in Europe and South Africa
are administrated by Deloitte.

We have entry level investment opportunities from as little as £ 11, 000 ( Rands 130,000 approx).

Have a look at our website SJ Capital Group - Strategic Land Investment

Let me know if you need any additional information at this stage, otherwise I will follow up next week some time.

Looking forward to your response.



Kind Regards,


SJ Capital Group
Ground Floor, South Wing
2 Cranbrook Crescent,
Douglas Saunders Drive,
La Lucia Ridge
South Africa, 4019

Mobile:
Fax2email: +27 (0)86 215 7026
Telephone: +27 (0)31 566 5552
Fax: +27 (0)31 566 5221

SJ Capital Group - Strategic Land Investment

 

[BobbyBB]

Any news on whether any investors have been paid out on SJ Capital?

Seems they've put in for planning on the Greenhithe site. The trouble as I see it is that's it's for only 40 houses. Let's look at some simple maths shall we.

40 houses, which means at least 20% have to be 'affordable', ie the land is basically worth a far smaller percentage of a non-affordable house by as much as 75%.

SJ Capital also has a stake in the land, let's assume that's 20% or 8 plots.

So 8 plots affordable and 8 plots for SJ Capital.

That only leaves 24 potentially profitable plots.

The question I'd be asking if I was an investor would be just how many 'plots' were orginally sold on the land?

Was it more than 24? If so I can see only complications, big complications actually. See point 4 for perhaps a clue as to the size and in turn amount of plots sold - http://www.businessopportunitywatch.com/Bally-Chohan-Paul-Charney-Brian-Smith.htm#brian

Of course, if the land doesn't get planning then the company still has your money...

Any comments from anyone on this? Remember, the land was supposed to be sold back in september 2012 acroding the timetable on their website (now removed). I'm assuming as well the September 2012 date was mentioned as part of the sales script to the original investors....

PS. Another thing to consider for an investor is what did you actually buy? Was it a marked out plot, say the once at the top right North East Corner, or was it a general plot on the land. If it was the former what happens if that part of the land is deemed for grass or road, does that make your investment worthless? Like I said, it all seems to be getting very complicated....

 

[pboyles]

Any news on whether any investors have been paid out on SJ Capital?

Seems they've put in for planning on the Greenhithe site. The trouble as I see it is that's it's for only 40 houses. Let's look at some simple maths shall we.

40 houses, which means at least 20% have to be 'affordable', ie the land is basically worth a far smaller percentage of a non-affordable house by as much as 75%.

SJ Capital also has a stake in the land, let's assume that's 20% or 8 plots.

So 8 plots affordable and 8 plots for SJ Capital.

That only leaves 24 potentially profitable plots.

The question I'd be asking if I was an investor would be just how many 'plots' were orginally sold on the land?

Was it more than 24? If so I can see only complications, big complications actually.

Of course, if the land doesn't get planning then the company still has your money...

Any comments from anyone on this? Remember, the land was supposed to be sold back in september 2012 acroding the timetable on their website (now removed). I'm assuming as well the September 2012 date was mentioned as part of the sales script to the original investors....

PS. Another thing to consider for an investor is what did you actually buy? Was it a marked out plot, say the once at the top right North East Corner, or was it a general plot on the land. If it was the former what happens if that part of the land is deemed for grass, does that make your investment worthless? Like I said, it all seems to be getting very complicated....

People that paid money to this company are not investors, they are victims. Land banking scams are very common.

 

[BobbyBB]

I've just read that email from the company above and it says that SJ Capital retains 25%of the land. I've also just checked with my surveyor friend and he says the MINIMUM by law is now 40% affordable housing on any site above 10 houses. The cost of an affordable plot he says is around 25% of a non afordable one. Therefore I'd suggest that an affordable plot is worth less than the price a client paid.

So SJ owns 10 of the plots (of which 4 have to be affordable).

16 total afforable on the Greenhithe site (4 belong to SJ Capital) so that only leaves 18 plots for the original investors!

Were there more than 18 plots sold on the land, that is the question I'd be asking management if I bought one of these plots from a salesmen at a booth in a South African Shopping Mall.

If more than 18 were sold where does that leave me? In fact where does that leave everyone who bought a plot? What if 50 plots were sold, what if 75 were sold, how would that work?

Of course, if planning is not granted then to me it's looks like SJ Capital will have done great as it already has everyone's money having already secured what I'd imagine to be a big profit on the site via packing it up and selling the small plots (again, hopefully no more than 18)...

 

[pboyles]

It seems the authorities are starting to close in on these land banking scams. They have charged several people including a solicitor.

FCA charges eight men in relation to land banking

 

[BobbyBB]

Yep, there's a Polo playing scammer called David Banner Eve that's in all sorts of trouble re a company called Assetz Land. Same story, selling tiny plots of land for exorbitant prices which the punters will have been told will 'soar' in value once they got planning permission/re-zoned.

Asset Land's David Banner-Eve branded a liar by judge - Investigations